After I took up astrology, the third book I bought was Llewellyn George's venerable A to Z Horoscope Maker and Delineator. I started working my way through that book. First I read about natal delineations and then about progressions. Insofar as the next section was about rectification, I naturally presumed that all astrologers used rectified charts. After all, birth certifcates were a great place to start, but as the old saying goes, “there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.” The cynic in me would like to call a birth certifcate a conspiracy between a doctor and the government.
So, I set out to rectify my chart. Unfortunately, the progression-based rectifcation method in the A to Z was the only tool I had in my toolbox at the time. I actually deduced my birthtime to be 4:15 p.m. and used it for a number of years. It did work better than the time on my birth certifcate (4:34 p.m.), but it wasn't quite right, either.
The best events to use in rectifying horoscopes are those events that are life-changing, particularly if they are beyond one's control. Usually, deaths fit those criteria all too well. In May, 1971, I had just graduated from college and returned to my home town, when I got the news that one of my friends from high school had been killed when his private plane crashed into a high-voltage powerline and exploded on May 31, 1971. His was the first death among my peers, and it affected me greatly. I was so upset, that I was moved to find out more about the meaning of life, and I gravitated to take up the study of astrology. I had been curious about astrology for many years, but I had no idea where to turn to slake my curiosity. I soon discovered a new metaphysical bookshop and bought my first astology books on June 7, 1971.
Looking at both the violent death of a friend and my beginning of what has proven to be a life-long study, it was very clear to me that this double event is the obvious key to my rectification of my own horoscope. All my earlier rectification work was keyed only on the death of a friend. Clearly, my Mars in the 10th house represented my friend. Mars is in Scorpio, and its dispositor, Pluto, is in the 8th, thereby suggesting that the death of a friend would figure prominently in my life. Furthermore since Mars is the historical ruler of Scorpio, Mars in the 10th house represents the 12th dynamic of the 11th house. Once again, Mars is key. But why did I take up astrology? While I was checking out various techniques to link my Mars with my midheaven at the time my friend died, I found that solar arcs would move my descendant close to my Uranus. Then I realized that it would be possible to find the right solar arc that could move the midheaven to my Mars and move the ascendant to oppose my Uranus simultaneously. I then had to decide what date to use. My friend died on May 31st, but I began my studies on June 7th 8 days later. In order to accommodate both days, I found the average date since both events were really part of the same process. So I used June 3rd 1971 to represent both events. The solar arc for June 3, 1971 was 20:04°. I don't quibble about rectifying to the second; the nearest minute is good enough. Unlike astronomers, astrologers understand orbs. This lead me to deduce 4:24 p.m. PDT to be my birthtime.
I was born in Portland, Oregon at St. Vincent's Hospital. Although my Win*Star software does supply the coordinates for the various hospitals around the country, it does not acknowledge that St. Vincent's was demolished and relocated to the suburbs in the early 1970s. Win*Star does, however, list coordinates for the various postal stations in bigger cities, and the closest post office in Portland to my birthplace is the Forest Park station. So I use its latitude and longitude.
Don Borkowski
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